Moving Into Accepting
by LainellaFay
Summary: "Peter Pan never wanted to grow up. Five years old, Niou thought it was a stupid idea. Now, at twenty-six, he thinks he understands why. Life is a cruel master for those who age." – Niou/Marui. Future-fic.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.  
><strong>

**Contains: **Shounen-ai (Boy/Boy), Crude Language, Homophobia etc.

* * *

><p><strong>Part One<strong>

.

.

.

_"__Often, it's not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don't know how to be."  
>― Heath L. Buckmaster, <em>_Box of Hair: A Fairy Tale_

.~.

Niou flings the keys to his new apartment up in the air, catching it as it falls, repeating the same motion over and over again. With his right hand in his pocket, Niou whistles as he heads up the stairs, two steps at a time. His belongings would arrive the day after, but Niou decided to stay in the empty apartment for the night, as well as to give it a once check over. As Niou continues climbing up to the fifth floor, he spots a guy holding a child in his arms, walking in the opposite direction. Niou would have passed by without a second thought but the male's bright red hair caught his attention. His eyes widen and he whips his head around, looking at the guy, who apparently did the same after catching sight of his own striking silver hair, now on the step below him.

"Marui?"

"Niou?"

They both spoke at the same time, and they immediately knew that they were right. Niou observes his old friend standing in front of him. Marui is taller, no longer could be considered a shorty, just shy of a few centimetres from Niou's own height. His hair is a little shorter, trimmed near the ends, and not as messy as it used to be in high school.

Marui speaks first, "What are you doing here?"

Niou fumbles with his keys and watches them tumble down the flight of stairs. Chasing after them, Niou bends down and picks them up, before turning back to look up at Marui who is still on the same step. "I'm living here from today onwards. I'm going to presume that you are too." Niou flicks his eyes over to the mass of hair on Marui's shoulder. "Yours?"

Marui furrows his eyebrows at Niou's question. When Niou thought that he didn't get him, Marui answers, "Oh, no. I'm just taking care of him for someone. You know I'm…"

"Gay?" Niou finishes for him, and Marui nods slowly, biting his bottom lip, eyes darting left and right. Niou wonders if he had mistaken the flash of horror, and then, pain on Marui's face. "Who knows? You could always adopt. Well, I'm just going to go to, you know." He raises up his hand and jingles his keys in the air. "Guess I'll catch you around sometime."

Niou bounces up the stairs, past Marui, before waiting for Marui's reply. But he swears that he faintly heard Marui say, "Same goes to you."

Niou smiles.

.~.

Niou wobbles under the weight of the box labelled _kitchen appliances_ as he slowly crawls up the stairs to his apartment. Barely able to see over the top of the box, Niou nearly slammed right into Marui who was standing by the door.

"Need some help?" asks Marui, placing his hands on his hips as he glances down at Niou, who is in a squat, the cardboard box on the floor.

"How do you know which apartment I'm in? The letterbox shouldn't have been filled in yet." Niou scratches his head, running his fingers through his hair, till he reaches his hair tie.

"I asked around." Marui shrugs nonchalantly. "It's not hard to find which apartment has a new owner. People gossip. By the way, I live directly above you. How coincidental don't you think?"

"There's no such thing as coincidences. Wait. Directly you mean, like above _above_?" Niou gapes. He reflects on his choice of words and regrets them instantly. What was he, a first grader? Going around saying, _'do you like _like_ her?'_ But he was stunned and that was the first thing that escaped his lips.

"Yup-p," Marui pops the 'p' and nods cheerfully. "So, you need help or not?"

"I could use an extra pair of hands," Niou mumbles, straightening up and points down towards the floor. "There's still a truckload of boxes waiting to be carried up."

"Sounds tiring." Marui places his hands behind his head. "How about I stay here and bring them into your place while you carry them up?"

Niou rolls his eyes and reaches out to whack Marui on the head. "Help properly like the servant you offered to be."

"A slave-driver as always, Niou."

.~.

Niou lie sprawled out on the ground while Marui pops his joints, sitting cross-legged. They sit in the middle of Niou's furniture-less apartment, filled with the dull light brown coloured cardboard boxes piling atop of each other. Rolling over onto his stomach, Niou rests his head on his palms with his elbows propped up on the floor. The room is dark, the sun having set an hour ago, and they were both too tired (lazy) to switch on the lights.

"I've not exercised this much in a billion years," Marui groans, stretching his arms in the air. "I should probably start to frequent a gym. Would you like to join me?"

Niou shakes his head. "Nah, I need to –" A loud growl pierces through the air, cutting Niou off midsentence. Niou eyes Marui, who is looking sheepish. "Tell me that's your stomach and not a fart."

A book would have definitely flown towards Niou's face if there were any lying around. Fortunately for him, there weren't. Marui flushes red—Niou felt strangely delighted that that part of Marui haven't changed. "I'm hungry, so what?"

Niou glances at his wristwatch. "Well, it certainly is way past dinner time. Since you helped me with the boxes, I'll treat you. Chinese or pizza?"

Marui lights up for a split second, before sending a glare at Niou. "I'm happy that you're treating me. But do you really have to make me choose between my two favourites?"

"Don't you dare say both."

Marui narrows his eyes and huffs, turning away from Niou. "Fine, Chinese." He then slowly rotates his head back and says, "I forgot, you don't know where the restaurants are around here right? Just wait a sec, I'll write it down for you—"

Niou gets into a sitting position and fishes his phone out of his back pocket. "I wandered around yesterday. Plus, I'm ordering home delivery." He dials the number that he already memorized into his phone.

The food arrives not long later and the two of them places the containers on the floor. "We're in a house yet we're eating on the floor," Marui complains, slurping up some noodles, before biting into a dumpling that he held in between his chopsticks. "Why can't you have some furniture set up like yesterday?"

"Think of it as camping. At least you're not eating _off_ the floor. Unless, you feel up to setting up the table for me right here right now."

"No thanks."

"I rest my case." They eat silently and Niou takes a swig of water. Fixing his eyes on Marui, he asks, "Did you want something?"

Marui blinks in surprise and looks up from his container of noodles, some strands hanging out of his mouth before he slurps them up. "What?"

Niou places the bottle down and rubs his eyes. He probably should have phrased that a little clearer. "You were standing outside earlier. I doubt you're there just to offer me some help."

"So you're saying that you won't believe me if I said that I just wanted to help?" Marui's smile is sly, bringing Niou back to their high school days. He remains unnerved. Testing each other, seeing who would falter first; a game which brought back much memories.

"Of course. The day you _just wanted to help_," Niou does the bunny quotation marks, "is the day I become God. Everyone knows you wouldn't bother yourself with troublesome matters." Niou thinks back to the days when Marui constantly dumped boring and tiring chores onto Jackal – ah, Jackal, he felt sorry for the lad.

They stare at each other, neither blinking. Niou's poker face, honed from years of practice, facing Marui's sly grin. Marui's the first to falter. He always did. Niou wonders why Marui still tried to win against him, he never did, never would.

"Fine," Marui surrenders, stuffing a mouthful of noodles, which were getting cold, into his mouth. Niou does the same with his fried rice. "It's been so long so I just wanted to see you. You know, get your contact number and all that stuff. You just happened to be moving your stuff so I offered a hand." Marui pauses, as if wondering whether he should continue. He does. "Plus, I wanted to see if you had cookies."

"Cookies?"

Marui chews and swallows, before waving his chopsticks in the air. "You know, the tradition where you offer food to your neighbours after moving in."

Niou rolls his eyes and sighs. "What tradition. I don't do that."

"It's only common courtesy!" Marui chucks his now empty container into the plastic bag and goes on all fours, crawling till his face is right in front of Niou. "Be sure to bring over some cookies next time."

Niou slowly shuts his eyes, sighing yet again. "Fine fine, you greedy pig."

Marui's about to pull back when he remembers, adding, "Homemade!"

"Huh?" Niou chucks his own empty containers into the plastic bag, tying it up and places it by the side to dispose of later.

"I like the cookies that you bake. Bake them again."

Niou squints his eyes, racking his memories. Did he ever bake for Marui? He couldn't remember. "Whatever," he says instead. Taking out his phone, he asks, "So? You wanted to exchange numbers?"

Marui smiles and mirrors him. "Hey Niou, don't you think that since we met, it's time for a team reunion?"

"How does that even link?" Niou types his number into Marui's phone, handing it back to the red head.

"It just does," Marui answers. "Don't you think that it'll be fun?"

Niou hides a smile with his hand, thinking back to their high school days with the Rikkaidai regulars. Sanada's frown, Yukimura's smile, Yanagi's rambling, Yagyuu's politeness sticking out like a sore thumb in the rowdy group of boys, Jackal's groans at Marui's unreasonable demands, Kirihara's whining, and his and Marui's plots. After a few moments of walking down memory lane, Niou removes his hand from his lips, allowing the smile – now wider than before – to be seen, and says, "I guess it'll be fun…"

Marui beams. "Do you still keep in contact with the rest? Jackal's the only one I speak to on a weekly basis."

Niou scratches his head. "I have Hiroshi's number…he calls me regularly, I have a feeling that he's trying to make sure that I don't turn into a wanted criminal or something. Keeping me under his watch, that sneak."

Marui chuckles, clutching his stomach. "I can see why."

"Call Jackal to arrange a meet up, he probably has the brat's number and you know how Akaya will follow Yukimura and the other two all the way to the other side of the world until he manages to defeat them – which is never going to happen," says Niou, ignoring Marui.

"Hmmm…you actually want to do this I see," Marui smirks. "Even though I'm the one that suggested it, you seem more excited than me."

"Shut up. Just get calling already, I'll contact Hiroshi."

"Aye aye, captain!" Marui frowns, tapping a finger against his chin. "No. That title's unofficially reserved for Yukimura. You'll have to settle with 'pain in the arse'."

"Dipshit."

"That's uncalled for."

"Suck it up."

.~.

They scheduled their team reunion on the following Sunday – the only day all of them were available. Being working adults, it wasn't easy to randomly gather everyone and stuff them into a diner for a few hours. No, they had to make an appointment, to fit everyone's different and busy schedules. Niou always hated it, but then again, it was one of those busy working adults himself, so he couldn't really complain. Maybe that was why workingmen always had the dreary look on their faces whenever he passed by them on the streets while he was only a school boy. It makes Niou wonder sometimes whether he looked like that to the younger generation nowadays.

Climbing up the stairs to his apartment, Niou tugs on his tie and loosens it with his left hand, while his right clutches his briefcase. Marui is leaning against the door to his apartment, head tilted back, gazing at the ceiling and in his arms he holds the child from before. Leaving his tie half-loosened, Niou strides up to his friend and knocks him softly on the head with his fist. Marui turns and smiles, that toothy smile like in their graduation photos.

"What are you doing?"

"I got bored," Marui answers, adjusting his hold on the sleeping, Niou notices, boy. "Heisuke's not any help either. So I thought I'd look for you."

"Heisuke?"

"This lil' fella here."

Niou leans over to get a better look of the boy's face. Around about four years old, older than what Niou thought when he saw him for the first time, and straight black hair. He has long eyelashes for a boy, Niou also realizes. "Are you sure he's not yours?"

"I'm one hundred per cent sure he isn't. What makes you say that?"

"You look the part. Plus, it's hard to believe that you're actually taking care of a kid that isn't yours." Marui opens his mouth to rebut but Niou continues, "Don't even try to say that you took care of your brothers. I know for a fact that you dump them onto Jackal while you stuff your face with cake." Marui moves aside to let Niou open the door. Niou steps into his apartment and let Marui in, before closing the door behind him.

"I _do_ take care of my bros, just not all the time. And Heisuke's kind of my boss's kid, can't really say no can I?" Marui kicks off his shoes and enters, placing the sleeping Heisuke down onto the couch before sitting down himself. Niou's apartment was finally filled with furniture and the items in the pile of boxes from before were unpacked and the boxes disposed of. "I love your sofa, it's so much softer than mine. Niou, trade with me."

"No thanks, I don't want your stinky sofa." Niou shrugs off his blazer and his tie comes off after it. "Taking care of your boss's kid isn't your job. You're a secretary—I still don't know what possessed you to take up such a position—not a babysitter."

There is a glint in Marui's eye and he places his index finger on his lip, in the shushing notion. "It helps me get on his good side. Besides, it's only for Fridays when I leave work early."

"Ho…" Niou hums. He unbuttons the top button of his dress shirt, and sits down beside Marui.

"So Niou, where're my cookies?"

"Huh?"

"The cookies!" Marui exclaims, moving his fists up and down in the air, reminding Niou of the whiny, demanding brat he secretly is. "I told you to bake some!"

"I find it hard to believe you're an adult sometimes," Niou replies, rubbing his neck. "I don't even have the time to cook my three meals, let alone bake some goddamn cookies for a sugar freak."

"I don't mind if you sacrifice sleep for it."

"The only thing I'll sacrifice sleep for is sex."

"…fair enough." Marui surrenders. As if remembering that there is a child in the room, he quickly turns to Heisuke, who is fortunately, still soundly asleep. "You should watch what you say when there're kids present Niou."

"Tsk," Niou clicks his tongue. "He wouldn't even know what it means."

"Corrupting a child's pure mind is not good Niou, not good." Marui shakes his head, crossing his arms as if to prove a point. "Can you believe not understanding what sex was? I mean, as angelic little two, three year olds?"

"Angelic my ass," Niou snorts. "You're talking about the Terrible Twos and Tiresome Threes. But no, I cannot believe not knowing what the glorious act of sex is at any point of my life."

"You're disgusting."

"You're the one who continued on about the subject when you told me not to _corrupt a child's pure mind_, hypocrite."

Marui glances at Heisuke at the corner of his eye and shrugs. "It's not as if he's awake."

"I rest my case."

"Shut up," Marui snaps with a roll of his eyes. "You're such a dick. I came all the way here with nothing but good intentions and maybe entertainment purposes, and you insult me, _and_ I didn't even get my cookies."

"_Excuse_ _me_," Niou scoffs. "You exaggerate. You barely have to walk a hundred metres to come over."

"Still."

"You are such a brat. Coffee?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

.~.

Niou pushes open the heavy glass doors into the diner, Marui a step behind him. Since they live pretty much at the same place, the duo went to the meeting place together. Niou glances around for familiar faces and catches sight of dark blue hair. A hand shoots up from that particular booth and waves frantically at the two of them. Marui laughs beside him and they make their way over to where Kirihara is acting like an overly excited five year old. The rest of the crew are already there.

"The brat's still a brat I see," Niou greets with a mock salute. "You and Marui should return to elementary school, I think neither of you have grown up yet. It's still too early for you to enter adulthood, young ones."

Niou sits down beside Yagyuu, who shuffled inwards, allowing space for the silver haired male. Marui sits opposite him, beside Jackal and his face expressed offense. Before either Kirihara or Marui could say a word, Yanagi cuts in.

"Still rude as always Niou."

Yukimura laughs while Yagyuu tries to cover his own with a cough – which ended up turning into a coughing fit. Niou grins in response. Yanagi was sneaky; the part Niou liked about the data master, sneakier than Niou himself could be, if he tried. Niou flicks his eyes around the table, taking in the new looks his friends sported. His eyes fall on Sanada and Niou chokes on air. If he was drinking, he would surely have spat out the contents onto Marui in front of him.

"What's with that caterpillar on your face, Sanada?"

Sanada's eyes turns into deadly slits.

"He doesn't appreciate you calling his, what do you call it, _moustache_—which he took a whole year to grow by the way—a caterpillar, Niou," Yukimura replies instead, with a smirk and a wink.

Niou rubs his chin and pretends to give his ex-vice captain a contemplative onceover. "I don't know." He nudges Marui under the table with his foot. "Dude, you agree that our esteemed ex-vice-captain looks like a paedophile?"

Marui laughs with his head thrown back, and Niou smiles, ignoring the growl coming from his side. "Makes you wonder what happens in that dojo, right?"

Jackal chokes while Yukimura and Yanagi each grabs hold of Sanada's arms.

"Niou-kun, you mentioned moving houses a while back?" Yagyuu wisely steers the conversation into safe territory.

"You're not any fun, Hiroshi." Niou rolls his eyes and leans back. "Yeah, moved into Marui's block. You should've seen Marui's face when he saw me."

"Hey! _You_ were as surprised as I was."

"I certainly did not make that silly eye-bugging expression."

"Now you're just lying."

"Who's hungry?"

"I am—_what?_" Niou incredulously stares at Kirihara. The younger male has his head stuck between the pages of the menu. All Niou could see is the tips of his unruly hair. Yukimura chuckles and gives him a shrug. Niou shakes his head and sighs, a silent truce was agreed between Marui and himself.

Their meal arrived soon after, and the gang caught up with each other. Despite not being together for years, there never was a moment of awkwardness. It was as if time had not moved for any of them, and that they were still in high school, living the days of tennis practice, laughter, and youth.

At that moment, they all knew, that no matter where they are, how long it has been, they will always be friends forever.

.~.

Sundays became Niou and Marui's unofficial hang out day—Niou's place being the rendezvous.

It had been four months since Niou reunited with Marui on the staircase, juggling the keys to his new apartment in his hand. After meeting up with the gang at the diner, Niou and Marui found themselves stumbling into Niou's apartment, intoxicated. One thing led to another; dirty jokes, random-ass pillow fights, more alcohol, dissing each other's manliness, waking up with the worst hangover _ever_—they found themselves back in the same situation the next Sunday. Minus the whole getting thoroughly and utterly pissed thing, because Niou complained the entire Monday morning _and_ afternoon about how it was a pain in the ass working with a killer headache.

It didn't stop the beer cans from making their presence in the two bedroom apartment though.

"So," Marui drawls, sprawled out on Niou's sofa, "why'd you move here?"

"You ask me that _now_?"

"What? There's no deadline for this kind of shit. There _is_ a deadline, however, on those cookies you owe me. You know what, by the end of this month, if I still don't see that batch of cookies, you owe me a cake—no, make that _three_ cakes—on top of it. Now, spill."

"You pig." Niou opens a can of beer with a _pop_, and chugs it before continuing, "Well, it's an interesting story if you must know."

"Oh?"

"Yes. How should I start…well, it all started in a bar—"

"Is this going to be some kind of drunken story or some shit?"

"—and, what? No. Maybe. Do you want me to tell the story or not?" Marui lazily waves his hand in the air. "As I was saying, in this bar, I met this woman. Sexy blonde with the longest legs I've ever seen—stop that. You know what I'm talking about, that, yes, that, stop that. Obviously you don't want to hear the details so long story cut short, we went out, dated, whatever you want to call it. A few weeks later, I broke it off and then, you know all those dramas Yukimura's sister forces us to watch? I get calls, letters, gifts and all that stalkerish crap, because what do you know, she turns out to be a major psychotic bitch and so I packed everything and ran away. Thus, concludes my story."

"Liar. This reeks so much of bullshit I bet Jackal can smell it from his place, _ten thousand whatever bullshit kilometres away_. You're such a wanker, Niou."

Niou arches an eyebrow and gulps down another mouthful of beer. "If you must know, I do _not_—"

"You're disgusting."

"You brought it up."

"I didn't mean it literally, for Pete's sake."

"Maybe you should specify yourself next time."

"You. You know what, screw this, where's my can?"

"You're going to get drunk. And when you complain to me tomorrow, I'm going to say: I told you so."

Marui shoots a glare at Niou and grunts. Turning his head so that he's facing the cushions, he says, "Fuck you. I'm sleeping."

"Goodnight." Niou raises his can in the air as if toasting and takes another swig. Leaning back onto his palms, supporting his weight, Niou gazes at the moon in the night sky through the window. A soft snore catches his attention and Niou swings his head around to blink at his friend, who is sleeping soundly on his couch. A faint hint of a smile later, Niou is pushing himself off the ground, closing his eyes for a few seconds to rid the dizziness he encountered from his movement. He contemplates carrying—or most likely dragging, given his condition—Marui into the spare bedroom but decides against it.

Marui would most definitely find ways to blame him for whatever rug burns he may get during the journey from his couch to the spare bed.

Grabbing the blanket from the spare bed, Niou drapes it over Marui and _stares_.

He had stared at Marui for God knows long. Niou tilts his head up and pinches the bridge of his nose, wondering why the hell he did that. Shaking his head, and immediately regretting it after when he was overwhelmed with the need to puke his guts out, Niou drags his feet into his own bedroom and was out like a light before he knew it.

.~.

"Jackal has a girlfriend," Marui announces, throwing his phone down _hard_ on the couch. It bounces a few times before lying still.

"Mm?" Niou hums, not taking his eyes off the screen. The World Cup's on and nothing is going to make him miss a second—except maybe toilet breaks.

"He wants us to meet her. Apparently."

"Why?"

"The fuck should I know?"

There is something in Marui's tone that makes Niou frown. He reluctantly peels his eyes away from the glowing screen to scrutinize the red head. "Are you on bad terms with Jackal?"

"That's absurd," Marui replies. He's not lying; Niou can tell, but there's still something not quite right with Marui's answer. Marui props his elbow on the hand rest, taking interest in the match airing on the television. He's a portrait of serenity—from Niou's angle at the very least. "Tell me a day you're good."

"What?"

Marui huffs in annoyance and glances at him. The former Trickster of Rikkaidai immediately absorbed the information he took in to be examined further in the near future, because that nagging feeling in his gut is going strong. "For the meeting. I have to text Jackal back to let him know."

"Sunday. We're always free on Sundays. It's not like we have anything planned." Niou shrugs nonchalantly. His eyes still vigilant for any hints.

Marui's lips are pressed into a thin line.

The red head stands up suddenly, grabs his phone from where he threw it and walks towards the front door. "I'll let him know."

Without a backwards glance or even a farewell, Marui left a nonplussed Niou on the couch while the television blared out cheers and applause. Realising he'd failed to witness the first goal of the match, Niou lets out a colourful stream of words in dismay.

.~.

Marveeti Gopal is a beautiful, charming, and funny lady. Straight pearly teeth, flawless dark skin, and pretty black curls that just brushes her shoulders. Jackal's a lucky man indeed—is Niou's observation.

"—grabbed my hands and tried to pull me up, mumbling apologies throughout, but then he slipped on the wet ground and fell backwards onto his bum instead."

"Oh my god," Jackal moans, hiding his hands behind his face in embarrassment. "I should have known you'd humiliate me in front of my friends."

Niou grins and splatters another glob of chilli sauce onto his burger. Marui's laughing boisterously beside him, across from the Brazilian. As Niou bites into his food, he can't help but notice the slight falseness in the red head's laughter. Just a tinge, but it was there nonetheless.

Niou can't help but wonder yet again whether Marui was at odds with Jackal. His other friend did not show any signs of hostility however. Mind-boggling, it is. Tuning back into the conversation, Niou decides to figure it out another time; Marui never was a good liar, and Niou's specialty is to crack down on lies and filter out the truth—things would come to light eventually.

"—asked me out while I was standing in the rain, soaked to the bone, looking all disgruntled and grotesque—"

"You were anything but!" Jackal cut in.

"I looked into the mirror when I reached home, Jackal. My mascara was running down my cheeks, my hair was plastered to my face—flat and completely unflattering—don't lie—"

"I'm not," Jackal protests, "I thought you were—_are—_the most beautiful person I've ever met."

Marveeti shakes her head in resignation and smiles at Marui. "Isn't he just a soppy cornball?"

Marui's nodding furiously and chuckling at Jackal's expense, unable to reply, so Niou says instead, "I think you two are awfully disgusting," with a cheeky grin. "This sappiness is making me nauseous. Jackal, man up, what ever happened to our wall of defence?"

Marveeti's eyebrows shoot up to her hairline as she swirls around to her boyfriend. "Wall of defence, I hear?"

Niou sees Jackal's hand moving towards Marveeti, and he _knows_ that they're holding hands under the table. "Tennis, love."

"Oh, nothing kinky or suggestive to that title?" Marveeti teases.

"W-what?" Jackal splutters and Marui chokes on his water. Niou merely widen his eyes.

"From what I hear, you and your friends have been close since middle school. I wouldn't be surprised to hear about any inter-team mingling, if you know what I mean," she smirks and Niou wants to give her a high-five. Jackal's a very lucky man indeed.

From the corner of his eye, he sees Marui's face turn pale at the insinuation. Cursing inwardly, Niou gobbles up the rest of his burger and asks, "Do you play tennis, Gopal?"

"No, no. I'm awfully bad at sports. Once Jackal tried to teach me how to play and I gave him a black eye instead."

Niou raises an eyebrow at the statement, clarifying, "You punched him?"

"No!" Jackal exclaims, aghast. The rest of his sentence is mumbled and Niou failed to catch it.

"Pardon?"

"I whacked him with the racket. He was trying to teach me the, what was it, babe? The swing—"

"The forehand, love."

Niou crinkles his nose. "Again, I mention how you two disgust me with your pet names."

"I'm sure you call your girlfriends 'honey', 'cutie-pie', or something horrendous like 'cupcake'," Marui coos, smacking his lips together.

"As a matter of fact, I do not," Niou sniffs in disdain, exaggerating hurt that his friend would think so lowly of him. The way Marui plays with his fries does not escape Niou's observations.

A hyena's laughter blasts out of nowhere and both Marui and Niou jump in their seats. Marveeti smiles sweetly at them and pulls out her mobile from her handbag, putting an end to the horrific ringtone, before excusing herself. The two stare incredulously at Jackal who is unconcerned, nor surprised, and contently digging his fork into a bacon.

As if he could feel their eyes gouging through his body, Jackal looks up confused. "What? Why are you staring at me like that? Stop it."

"That's some choice," Marui remarks uncertainly.

"Indeed," Niou agrees, continuing, "but fucking brilliant. Dude, imagine the _pranks_ I can do with that!"

"What?" Jackal's thoroughly confused; his face showing it all.

"Your girlfriend's awesome," is all Niou says, and that was that.

Marui pushes his plate away—half-eaten—and slides down in his seat. "Yes, she is." He looks up at Jackal at smiles a toothy smile. "I wish I could be you."

What Jackal took as a joke, Niou found serious, and the gears in his brain started to whirl.

"I'm sure you'll find someone you love too, Bunta." Jackal beams, clearly happy that his friends approve of his girlfriend. "There's a girl out there who's just right for you. I know it." His eyes flick over to Niou and clearing his throat, he adds, "You too Niou."

"Why," Niou drawls wryly, "I'm flattered you thought about me too, Jackal."

It all clicked into place and Niou feels so _stupid_.

The signs were all there. The constipated look Marui tried to hide whenever Jackal freely showed his affection for Marveeti in public, the 'do you have a girlfriend?' question directed to _both_ him and Marui, Marui's slightly faked happiness, Marui's words 'I wish I could be you'; everything was so blatantly out _there_ and Niou have never felt like a worse friend in his entire life.

.~.

"No one else knows."

"Looks like I'm out of coffee. I'll pour myself another cup, want some, Niou?"

"I'm right, aren't I?"

"I'll just get some myself then."

"_Marui_."

Marui halts, his back facing Niou. "Drop it, Niou."

"I will _not_. You never even told _Jackal_, you _always_—"

"Drop it. I'm—"

"—thought you would trust him! You—"

"—is none of your b—"

"—planning on keeping it a secret your whole—"

"_I'm telling you to leave it alone!"_ Marui's shoulders shook. Niou can see it from the distance. The two breathed heavily as the echo of Marui's yell died down.

Niou wants to reach out and press Marui against his body, hold him tight, breathe him in, and tell him that he's not alone, because _he's_ here and he can tell him anything. He doesn't—can't—because he knows Marui will push him away and hide further into the shell of his, refusing to believe that Niou's not saying that out of pity. Niou knows because Yukimura was the same way when he fell ill.

As he stares at the red mop of hair, Niou can only painfully croak out a pathetic "…why?"

Not a _why don't you want to continue the conservation_, but a _why are you hiding?_

Marui is silent for a long time, and when Niou starts to think that he wouldn't answer, he whispers, just loud enough to carry across the room into the silver haired male's ears, "You wouldn't understand, Niou."

He doesn't stop Marui from leaving.

.~.

A few days later with no contact from Marui, Niou trudges up the stairs to the red head's apartment. Knocking on the door, Niou shoves his hands in his jean's pockets, rocking backwards and forwards on his soles.

Marui's eyes are bloodshot as he opens the door. The two stare at each other.

Niou breathes and takes the initiative. "I won't talk about it for now."

"Okay." Marui is hesitant in his reply.

"But we will. You know that, right? We will talk about it later. Not now, but later, we will."

Marui visibly stiffens, before relaxing slightly. "I know."

"Good."

.~.

They are lying on the soapy floor, face up towards the ceiling, bodies trembling with laughter. Niou's hair is the equivalent to a soapy afro and Marui has a streak of green liquid detergent running down his cheek.

"My stomach aches," Marui gasps out. "Laughed…too much."

"At least we know your stomach muscles won't be flabby."

"The horror." Marui rolls over onto his belly. "Flabby stomach muscles, how will I ever survive?"

Niou remains sprawled out like a starfish while Marui tries, and fails, to sit up. "Flabby stomach muscles are a crime against humanity. I would be forced to send you to Pluto where you can live with all the other _Flabstomuses._"

"Flabstomuses? Is that your way of mashing," Marui pauses, "three words together?"

"A creative license, that's all."

"More like a creative _poo_-cense."

"Let's see you do any better."

"Ah, the tragic fall of the Trickster. To think I'd ever be witness to this moment of history." Marui shakes his head like a wet dog, flinging soap bubbles around the kitchen. Niou narrows his eyes at a particular bubble drifting towards him, cringing as it got closer and closer to him, before finally popping mere centimetres away from his mouth. He splutters and gags.

"Soap tastes nasty. Gross." Niou flings his arms upwards and forwards, using the momentum to bring his body upright. He scrutinizes the state of his kitchen and remarks, "How did this happen?"

Soap and water were everywhere; the floor, drawers, sink, even the fridge. Hell, not even the little herb plant was spared. Niou moans at the loss and makes a mental note to purchase a new one.

"You wanted to clean."

"I must have done a smashing job. Isn't everything simply _sparkling_?"

"Aren't you just Mr Grouchy-and-Woefully-Sarcastic?" Marui stands and offers a hand to Niou, who accepted. "Let's clean ourselves up and get back to tackling this." Then, with a sly grin, the red head shoves Niou towards a wall and slides out of the kitchen. "The shower's mine!"

"You cheat!"

.~.

"No, that's fucking stupid."

_"__You really ought to watch your language."_

"Oh, don't be such a stick in the arse. You've known me for about half your life, Hiroshi."

_"__And my words have fallen on deaf ears for that many years."_

"If you want to waste your breath, it's up to you. You sure as hell know I won't _refine_ my language for your, or anyone else's as a matter of fact, tender baby ears." Niou tucks his cell phone between his ear and shoulder, hands scraping furiously at the stain in his coffee mug. "Anyhow, back to the topic, that's fucking stupid."

_"__Niou-kun…"_ Yagyuu is exasperated from his tone. _"It's a baby shower. Just get her a towel or toys. It's really _not_ a 'fucking stupid' idea as you keep putting it."_

"I know you were just quoting me, but holy fuck, Hiroshi, you swore."

_"__Niou-kun…"_

"Yeah, yeah, you swear too, you're a normal man who swears like a sailor. I get it." The stubborn stain finally ceased to exist and Niou places the mug on the drying rack. Flicking his hands in the sink, Niou continues, "But we don't know the sex yet—fucking Mitsumi wants to be _surprised_. There are only two choices! Fifty-fifty, what the fuck kind of _surprise_ does she want? An alien or a mutant-octopus? What if I get something too, I don't know, _girly_ and it turns out to be a boy or I get something too _boyish_ and it turns out to be a fucking girl because life loves to fuck me sideways like that."

_"_Language_. There are items that are unisex, Niou-kun."_

"Yes, smarty-pants. Neutral. Why didn't you just _say_ that from the beginning?" Niou hears Yagyuu counting to ten under his breath, and smirks, giving himself a pat to the back. Getting Yagyuu riled up was a challenge, and Niou loves challenges. Just put the two and two together. "Are your panties in a twist yet?"

_"__Please be serious."_

"I'm sorry. I can't be _Sirius_. I, unfortunately, do not have the ability to morph into a dog."

_"__Stop."_

"Stopping is overrated. Puns on the other hand are the treasures of life."

_"__I don't understand how Marui-kun puts up with you."_

"He's been putting up with me like how you've been _putting_ those golf balls into the hole."

_"…__that was a horrendous one."_

"My wit takes vacations once in a while. It just so happens to fall on today."

_"__Right. Why don't you ask Marui-kun for suggestions?"_

"You're just trying to dump me on him, aren't you?"

_"__Mhm."_

"You're not even going to lie?"

_"__No."_

"Fuck you Hiroshi."

_"__I apologise but I would have to turn you down on that offer, Niou-kun."_

"I'm rubbing off on you."

_"__Unfortunately so. I have to go. Adieu."_

"Fucking _Adieu._"

Niou rolls his eyes and cuts the line. Without delay, he pulls Marui out of his contacts and sends him a message.

_shopping trip, you're invited_

A reply lights up on his screen within seconds.

**_what where why_**

_no questions. I'll be up in 10. be ready _

.~.

"Your sister's having a baby?"

"That's what I said."

"Sorry." The two walk down the aisles of the department store aimlessly; Niou with a bored look, and Marui in slight shock. "Haven't seen Mitsumi since high school, I never knew she got married."

Niou wrinkles his nose. "It was a set-up really. Father made this deal with a big-shot and one part of it was for Mitsumi and Shinto to be engaged."

"That's barbaric," Marui remarks, raising an eyebrow. "Didn't think Mitsumi would agree with something like that."

"She didn't. Not at first. Neither party were happy about it. But they hit it off in the end, really, Shinto's Mitsumi's type. So she says. All this _before_ they even got married, mind you. In a span of six months, you'd think they've been together for years and that the entire relationship was their idea." Niou stops to play with one of those singing toys. "They would have called it off if they really couldn't stand each other's guts. The deal didn't say it had to be permanent, Father wouldn't be _that_ cruel even for a billion dollars."

"Oh. Stop that." Marui swats Niou's hand away from yet another singing doll. "You don't suppose you'd be placed in the same situation…do you?"

"Hell no."

"Pretty sure that's what your sister thought before it happened."

"I'm certain. Right after the announcement I stomped up to my father and ensured that no such thing will _ever_ fall upon myself." Niou halts and eyes a ceramic tea set; both of them having wandered away from the Toys Section and into the Kitchen & Cutlery Section. "Mitsumi said something about tea. Or was it coffee? Can't remember."

"Shouldn't you get something for the baby?"

"The baby can be an alien for all I know."

"Niou!"

"What? It's genderless at the moment."

"Just because you don't know the gender doesn't mean it's genderless. For goodness sake, just get a towel and be done with it."

Niou looks up to the ceiling and groans. "Why in ever loving fuck did Hiroshi think you'd come up with better suggestions?" Tilting his head to the side, silver strands falling over his eyes like a curtain, Niou sighs and says, "I said this to Hiroshi and I'll say this to you too: that's fucking stupid."

Marui's jaw drops as his eyes bugged out. "It is _not_! Besides, _you're_ the one who dragged me out without any explanations whatsoever. If you don't want to listen to my ideas, fine! I'll just go home."

Niou shifts his weight onto one leg and smirks, "No, you won't."

"And why is that?" Marui challenges, eyes narrowed into slits.

"You love me too much." Turning suddenly, Niou continues walking down the aisle, ceramic tea set forgotten. With barely a glance over his shoulder, he says, "Come on, let's find something for that alien-child."

.~.

They finally breach _The Topic_ one sweltering Sunday night.

"I don't want people to look at me like I'm some sort of circus _freak_."

"You're not. You know you're not."

"You don't _know_ the things people have in their minds, Niou."

"Then how do _you_?"

"…I've seen it. I've seen it happen."

The air is still. Marui is curled up into a ball on the sofa. Niou looks up at him from his spot on the floor and the sight informs him of all the horrible things his friend had seen—things they've all more or less experienced, growing up. It's during these times that Niou wishes they're all back in middle school; playing tennis and fooling around like monkeys.

"We'll still be here, you know. All of us." Niou is confident as he says it. "We'll stick by your side. I'm still here, aren't I?"

"…I know. Niou, I—" Marui pauses, exhaling deeply, "…thank you."

Niou nods and takes a sip from his beer can.

Peter Pan never wanted to grow up. Five years old, Niou thought it was a stupid idea. Now, at twenty-six, he thinks he understands why. Life is a cruel master for those who age.

.~.

**_told Jackal. he's cool._**

Niou reads the texts and smiles.


End file.
